Through Storytelling, Students Share Indigenous Stories in an Exhibition at the Detroit Historical Society

In a collaborative studio course, communication design and photography students created traditional and interactive experiences that celebrate the lives and stories of Indigenous people in the greater Detroit area through thorough research and ethically sourced materials.

This project turned into an exhibition, “ReDocumenting Detroit: Revisited,” and was featured at the Allesee Gallery of Culture at the Detroit Historical Society from Sept. 17 to Oct. 2, 2022. 

Sparked by the CCS Land Acknowledgement Statement, students came together in a sponsored studio with the Detroit Historical Society to pay homage to Indigenous communities.  The Land Acknowledgement Statement states:

“The College for Creative Studies respectfully acknowledges that we are on the traditional, contemporary, and ancestral homelands of the Anishinaabe – Council of Three Fires:
The Ojibwe/Chippewa, Odawa/Ottawa, and Potawatomi/Bodéwadmi along with their neighbors the Seneca, Delaware, Fox, Shawnee, Loups, Miami and Wyandot who maintained, and continue to preserve lifeways along Detroit’s river banks and throughout the Great Lakes region. Through signing the Treaty of Detroit in 1807, Anishinaabek tribes ceded the land now occupied by the city we stand on. We recognize Michigan is home to 12 federally recognized tribes who continue to steward this land, in remembrance of their ancestors and thinking of future generations.”

Placing an emphasis on the research presented and artwork created being ethical, respectful, and authentic, students understood that further development required collaborating directly with the Indigenous community. Students worked with several artists and activists from the Indigenous communities along the way, including Hadassah Greensky and Soufy, co-founders of Vibes with the Tribes, and Sarah Brant, advocate and registered member of the Muncey Delaware Nation. 

The course, co-taught by Bill Valicenti, associate professor, Photography, and Matthew Raupp, associate professor, Communication Design, concluded with “ReDocumenting Detroit: Revisited,” an exhibition that featured projects that ranged from traditional photographic prints to interactive experiences using touch surfaces, augmented reality, 360 degree immersive video, and gesture-based interfaces. Support from the Transformer Fund and the Ford Motor Company Fund made this project possible.

Featured work included:

Celebrate our history. Celebrate our future. Celebrate our culture.

Haley Petz, Katie Gerlach, Jessica Kuhlman, Raymar Patterson, and Clark Virostick

Native Convergence

Benjamin Schaefer and Madie Graham

Indigenized Space, Reclaiming History

Lucy van Eerde and Madi Ritenburgh

Language is Survival

Thomas McElmeel